The art of making cheese is complex and has evolved very little over time. The process still begins with milk mainly from cows, sheep or goats. About ten pounds of milk is required to produce a single pound of cheese. The milk is often, but not always, pasteurized to kill unwanted bacteria. Next, a starter culture of desirable bacteria is added to the milk. The starter culture can be, for example, streptococci or lactobacilli bacteria. The particular strain of bacteria and amount used help in flavor development. The milk is then allowed to ferment and the microorganisms break down lactose converting it into lactic acid, citric acid, and other metabolites.
After fermentation is complete, enzymes are added which begin breaking down casein, a soluble protein in milk. Rennet is one such enzyme that is obtained from the lining of the fourth stomach of claves. In addition to breaking down casein, rennet helps coagulate the milk solids into curds floating in a solution of milk sugar, minerals and other water-soluble proteins also known as whey.
The curds and whey are heated and stirred, and the whey is drained off. The curds are transferred into a mold, pressed into blocks and left to age. Aging times vary from, for example, a few days to several months and sometimes years. In the case of cheddar cheese aging for about sixty days provides a mild to medium flavor while extra sharp flavor requires about fifteen months. Microbial and chemical reactions continue to occur in the cheese as it ages.
During the aging process many compounds are produced which contribute to flavor generation. In fact, it has been estimated that about four hundred different compounds contribute to the flavor of cheddar cheese. The main classes of compounds thought to contribute to flavor generation in cheese include amino acids, peptides, carbonyl compounds, fatty acids and sulfur compounds. Several volatile compounds including fatty acids, esters, aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, and sulfur compounds are included in lists describing the aroma of various cheeses. Production of several of these aroma and flavor compounds has been attributed to multiple enzymatic and chemical reactions that take place in a sequential manner in cheese as it ages.
One particular series of reactions that occurs involves proteins that are broken down into their component amino acids. These amino acids are then converted to their corresponding α-keto acids. The α-keto acids are metabolized even further providing compounds that add particular flavor notes to the cheese. Amino acid catabolism has been identified as a rate-limiting step in the development of cheese flavors.
As consumer demand continues to grow for high quality and flavorful cheese, it is necessary to decrease the time it takes for flavor to fully develop. One approach has been to make a cultured cheese concentrate (“CCC”) having more intense cheese flavor, and then use it as a cheese flavoring agent in another bulk material. CCC's have been manufactured that attain full cheese flavor development within a number of days instead of months. These CCC's are added to other bulk foods, such as process cheeses or snack foods, to impart or intensify a cheese flavor. Methods for the manufacture of such cheese-flavored concentrates have been described, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,876. Typically the process involves a fat and protein containing substrate that is cultured with a lactic culture followed by addition of various cultures, proteases, peptidases, and lipases. U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,876 describes cheese flavored concentrates that can be obtained from a starting material containing an interesterified fat with butyric acid as an essential constituent fatty acid, instead of cheese curds, or without formation of whey byproduct. U.S. Pat. No. 6,214,586 describes use of live cultures having high levels of proteolytic enzymes and peptidolytic enzymes to debitter enzymatic modified cultures.
Although these prior processes may produce an accelerated development, or an enhancement, of cheese flavor, they do not produce enhancements that target specific cheese flavor components. More recently a technology has been developed to produce a natural biogenerated cheese flavoring system that can be used to prepare different cheese products/derivatives, targeted at various cheese flavor profiles using a modular approach to flavor creation, which is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,406,724. The cheese flavoring system described in this patent is derived from different components, wherein the individual components are combined in different ratios to provide specific flavor profiles in the cultured cheese concentrate products.
Despite the developments described in the above publications, a need still exists for alternative routes for making cheese flavoring systems, especially with a more diversified range of possible flavors. The present invention provides a cultured cheese concentrate and method for its manufacture that meets these and other desirable needs as well as provides other benefits.